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Thursday, August 30, 2012

I did something last night that I haven't done in ages. I put out a CQ on HF. I was running just 100 watts into the MA5B pointing north west for the States on 18 Mhz SSB and managed to run a bit of a pile-up. During the course of this pile-up, I picked out KB3RHR, Craig in Pittsburg, who was running just 5 watts from a Flex radio. He had a reasonably strong signal, 57 to 59 with QSB. Craig captured our QSO on video in his shack just after setting up his Flex 1500 radio. You can see the video below:

Tuesday, August 21, 2012

I've just had a short chat with Chris GW7HAE/M through the Irish South Eastern Amateur Radio Group repeater network. Chris was operating from a handheld, using just half a watt, and a rubber duck antenna, from his car in Pembrokeshire. He was accessing the SEARG network through EI7MLR, the Mount Leinster 70 centimetres repeater. I was going back to him as EI2KC/P from my holiday QTH in Duncannon,, Co Wexford, through the Helvic Head 2 metre repeater EI2HHR on 145.675, using 5 watts on my Waccom UV5R handheld. An excellent contact.

Chris did fade for a few moments in QSB but otherwise held a good signal into EI7MLR for the duration of our 7 or 8 minute QSO.

Friday, August 17, 2012

Here are two videos which might interest you. The first is a short video of a QSO I made from the top of Red Mountain, Donore, a hill about three or four miles from my QTH. I was operating a Waccom UV5R, a cheap Chinese imported handheld, inside the car, and managed to open the Mount Leinster 70cms (UHF) repeater - a total of 75 miles away!! The QSO was with Declan EI4GJB who is based in Limerick city. Declan was operating through the Devil's Bit 2m repeater which is connected to EI7MLR (Mount Leinster) through the South Eastern Amateur Radio Group (SEARG) network.

The second video is from M3UHQ, Lawrie, in England. If you move forward to 2:50 you might hear a familiar voice!!!

Saturday, August 11, 2012

I had the pleasure of putting the D64K Comoros dxpedition into my log four times so far. Comoros is an island off the eastern coast of Africa. So far I have worked them on 15m SSB, 12m CW, 12m SSB and 10m SSB. Three of these four QSOs were made with just 100 watts of power, while 15m SSB was with 400 watts. All contacts were made with the MA5B minibeam.

The first QSO on 10m SSB was a broken call. They logged me as EI3KC, but within 40 minutes I had worked them a second time - again with 100w - and this time they had the call right !!

Comoros is my 265th DXCC. Not bad for a small station. I have not had much time for radio recently as the deadline for the completion of my new book approaches. I hope to give the draft manuscript to the publisher on Tuesday, all going well. In fact, I am still writing, even as I am trying to work Comoros !

Hopefully I will get D64K into the log a few more times before the dxpedition ends. You can see a video I made shortly after working them below:

Monday, August 6, 2012

This is P29FR booming in at 5/7 on my MA5B minibeam. I recorded this short clip about two minutes after I had worked him as a brand new country on 15 metres (21 Mhz). In fact, I have only worked Papua New Guinea on 20m and 12m previous to today, so it was a great contact.

Thursday, August 2, 2012

This blog has not been updated much recently. Since being made redundant I find myself busier than ever! I am looking for a job, obviously, but I am also writing my new book, which I hope to complete within the next week or so. Besides that, I haven't had much time for radio. I worked Israel 4X/4Z on 6 metres, giving me my 17th new DXCC on that band this season. My HF activity has been very sparse.

However, with the appearance of the CY9M St. Paul Island Dxpedition, I had to make some effort, albeit limited, to get them into the log. I managed to work them on six different band slots despite the time limitation, something I am extremely happy with.

Also on Monday my laptop failed and is still in the repair shop as we speak. I hope they can recover all my data. My entire log is on that laptop! Although I do back it up about once a month, I haven't done so recently so the latest backup is a month or so old. I think CY9M is my 264th DXCC on HF.

To have a look at what has been keeping me busy lately, have a look at this website: